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'Access'

giving a reasonable opportunity to look at a document, or listen to or view a recording

giving a copy of a document

giving a summary of the information

providing a transcript

giving the information orally

'Agency'

Almost everyone who holds personal information is an 'agency' under the Privacy Act.

An agency can be a public sector body like:

a government department; or

a Minister of the Crown.

Or it can be a private sector body like:

a company;

a business;

a club; or

a charity or other non-profit body.

Even an individual person is an agency (but see section 56 for further details about when an individual person might not be liable for privacy breaches).

However, the Act specifically excludes some people and organisations from being agencies. This means they are not governed by the privacy principles.

Section 2 of the Act (under 'agency') sets out the complete list of exclusions. For example, these are not agencies under the Act:

an MP (acting in his or her capacity as an MP);

a court or tribunal (as regards its judicial activities);

the news media (as regards their news activities); or

the Ombudsmen.

Other privacy rules may cover what these people and organisations can do. See here for information on other privacy rules, and for some useful links.

'Collect'

To collect information, the agency must, in some way, ask to get it.

This includes setting up equipment to record anything that happens in an area.

It is not a "collection" if the agency is just given information that it did not ask for.

'Correction'

An agency that holds personal information shall, if requested by the individual concerned, take such steps (if any) to correct that information. The information held should be accurate, up to date, complete, and not misleading. (See principle 7).

'Disclosure'

Information is disclosed when it passes to a person who did not know it before.